Karlene Ball Named Endowed Chair in Developmental Psychology

College of Arts and Sciences University Professor, Chair of Psychology, and Director of the Center for Research on Applied Gerontology, Karlene K. Ball, Ph.D., has been named as endowed chair in developmental psychology by The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees.

Dr. Ball is an internationally renowned expert on developmental change in cognition associated with aging.  Her research has resulted in discoveries that span the disciplines of cognitive psychology, human factors, injury prevention, basic and applied gerontology, vision science, and transportation research.  Dr. Ball has spent her career taking real world problems and finding solutions that improve the everyday functioning of older adults.

Her work has recently become the focus of a nationwide trend in neural plasticity and brain fitness.  

Dr. Ball is one of the most accomplished and productive academicians at UAB with numerous extramural grants including a prestigious M.E.R.I.T award from the National Institute on Aging in recognition of excellence in research achievement and potential as well as funding for one of the first Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology.  Dr. Ball has published extensively with more than 100 scholarly papers and over 200 presentations at professional meetings. 

During Dr. Ball’s career at UAB she has been the recipient of local and national awards including the 2008 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction and the 1996 Nationwide Insurance Highway Safety Award.  She is a Fellow of the  American Psychological Association, and recently chaired the Transportation Research Board Committee on the Safe Mobility of Older Persons of the National Research Council.    

The College of Arts and Sciences congratulates her on this well-deserved honour.